CNN International called the other day, wanting to talk about EC Transport Minister Antonio Tajani's call for a global blacklist of airlines. Tajani wants to expand the European Commission's three-year-old list of airlines that it doesn't allow to fly into its airports or in its airspace. Interestingly, he made his proposal a couple of hours after the crash of a Yemenia A310 into the Indian Ocean near the Comoros Islands. Yemenia was under a partial EC ban: only its newest aircraft, not the A310, could be used on flights to the EC.Leaving aside the question of Tajani's timing, which CNNi questioned, one has to ask: if the blacklist were global, who would compile and enforce it? Whose standards, criteria and rules would be used? How would it be enforced globally? Does ICAO, the UN-affiliated International Civil Aviation Organization, have the desire, or the will, to take on the task? All of these are questions that deserve thought before we nod in rapid assent.
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